Brand New Drobo 5D3 5-Bay RAID Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure for Mac DRDR6A21 and DRDR6A31

Rob Andrews

7 years ago

Contents hide

1 The Brand New Drobo 5D3 5-Bay RAID Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure for Mac DRDR6A21 and DRDR6A31

2 Why does the Drobo 5D3 Arrive with two Thunderbolt 3 USB-C Ports?

3 What are the Specs and details of the New Drobo Thunderbolt 3 DAS?

4 Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

The Brand New Drobo 5D3 5-Bay RAID Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure for Mac DRDR6A21 and DRDR6A31

Designed for media professionals, content creators, and small businesses running Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Lightroom, and other I/O intensive applications, or even those who just need to back up terabytes of data, the 5D3 5-Bay Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure from Drobo is equipped with five 3.5″ SATA drive bays that support SATA III 6 Gb/s and SATA II 3 Gb/s drives.

The 5D3 distinguishes itself from the original Drobo 5D and 5Dt through the inclusion of Thunderbolt 3 technology, which is accessed through two integrated Thunderbolt 3 ports, which operate with bi-directional data transfer speeds of up to 40 Gb/s. Those who own the MacBook Pro 2016 or the newly revealed iMac Pro 2017 will certainly see the speed advantages of Thunderbolt 3 and the Drobo 5D3.

Why does the Drobo 5D3 Arrive with two Thunderbolt 3 USB-C Ports?

While one of the Thunderbolt 3 ports is used to connect the 5D3 to your compatible system, the second one is used to daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt devices together, including one 5K display or two 4K displays. The Thunderbolt 3 ports also provide 15W of charging power for Thunderbolt 3 laptops, and there is also one USB 3.0 Type-C port, which transfers data at speeds up to 5 Gb/s. Please be aware that the 5D3’s Thunderbolt 3 ports are only compatible with Mac, while the USB 3.0 Type-C port can be used with both Windows and Mac.

What are the Specs and details of the New Drobo Thunderbolt 3 DAS?

Below are the details available on the Drobo DRDR6A21 and DRDR6A31 for Mac:

£500+ ex.VAT (most likely in the £540-550’s area)
It’s predecessor, The Drobo 5DT is £700+ ex.VAT, so large price difference with the newer and faster device being cheaper!
5-Bay – SATA HDD/SSD of the very latest 10TB and 12 TB from Seagate and Western Digital
LED outside per drive – Drive Health, Standby, Access, Temperature, Data Transfer, Individual Drive , Capacity low-Med-High, Thunderbolt Activity, Blue Line LEDs for overall system Capacity and free space

2x Thunderbolt 3 Ports – over USB-C Connector – MAC ONLY, supporting Apple macOS X 10.10 and higher
1x USB 3.0 USB-C Port – WINDOWS & MAC Compatible
mSATA SSD Cache Slot – Arrives unpopulated, but lets you install an mSATA SSD for vastly improved Read and Write speeds
BeyondRAID from DROBO – So you can use ANY drives (size, speed, brand, etc) and still maintain a healthy and maximum capacity RAID array
DAISY Chain (Mac Only) upto 6 Devices – Supporting One 5K or Two 4K Displays + 15W of Charging Power via Thunderbolt 3
Enhanced Time Machine Support – Drobo is compatible with Apple’s Time Machine, which will consume the capacity of an external storage system. By utilising the Drobo Dashboard, you can simply allocate capacity limits for backups and data storage.

The Retail version includes:

Thunderbolt 3 Cable (3.3′)

Power Cord with Power Supply (6′)

Limited 2-Year Warranty

📧 SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER 🔔

🔒 Join Inner Circle

Get an alert every time something gets added to this specific article!

Want to follow specific category? 📧 Subscribe

This description contains links to Amazon. These links will take you to some of the products mentioned in today's content. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Visit the NASCompares Deal Finder to find the best place to buy this device in your region, based on Service, Support and Reputation - Just Search for your NAS Drive in the Box Below

Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

Finally, for free advice about your setup, just leave a message in the comments below here at NASCompares.com and we will get back to you.

Need Help? Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then I can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. Do not worry about your e-mail address being required, it will NOT be used in a mailing list and will NOT be used in any way other than to respond to your enquiry.

TRY CHAT Terms and Conditions

If you like this service, please consider supporting us. We use affiliate links on the blog allowing NAScompares information and advice service to be free of charge to you.Anything you purchase on the day you click on our links will generate a small commission which isused to run the website. Here is a link for Amazon and B&H.You can also get me a ☕ Ko-fi or old school Paypal. Thanks!To find out more about how to support this advice service check HEREIf you need to fix or configure a NAS, check Fiver Have you thought about helping others with your knowledge? Find Instructions Here

Or support us by using our affiliate links on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Alternatively, why not ask me on the ASK NASCompares forum, by clicking the button below. This is a community hub that serves as a place that I can answer your question, chew the fat, share new release information and even get corrections posted. I will always get around to answering ALL queries, but as a one-man operation, I cannot promise speed! So by sharing your query in the ASK NASCompares section below, you can get a better range of solutions and suggestions, alongside my own.